They may not have realized it until now, but smartphone users potentially have a $12,000 device in their hands and apps actually save about 22 days of time every year. Eye-opener, we know. The news is based on an online survey conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of ClickSoftware in April 2013.
It claims that 97% of respondents felt they saved on time by employing a minimum of 1 out of 16 key apps on a daily basis. ClickSoftware says that email, texting and social networking were reported as the top 3 frequently used applications on handsets. A partial list of the main tools which were considered consists of email, texting, social networking, web browsing, games, weather, GPS or maps and calendar. While we’re still to understand how games figure in this roster of time-saving utilities, we get the inclusion of the rest.
Here’s how the $12,000-worth handset idea is calculated – The average cost of a US employee’s time based on a typical $45,790 annual wage rate and a 40-hour work week is $22. Going by the survey responses, multiply this by American smartphone users’ estimate of the 535 hours per year gained by utilizing mail, social networking or texting through their mobile devices. And the answer is just short of $12,000. 1/3 of the respondents declared that they accessed GPS and mail for work and otherwise; so the professional and personal crossover use both add to the $12,000 value.
People are touted to earn 39 extra minutes with their most frequented application, 27 minutes through the second most used tool and 22 minutes with the third. Why don’t men ask for directions? ClickSoftware mentions that 17% of men are more likely to note down GPS as 1 of their top 3 apps as compared to women (10%). 72% of participants were of the opinion that GPS saved them an approximate of 30 minutes a day when pitted against reading a paper map for the task.
Smartphone users should plan a vacation to celebrate the 22 days of time freed up by their devices each year, says ClickSoftware. The survey was carried out between April 1st and 3rd. It took into account the responses from 2,120 US adults aged 18 years and above. Out of these participants, 971 were smartphone owners.